First time using the kits

Comparing and contrasting
owl and vulture bird feathers.

During the middle of march, I had an opportunity to meet with a campfire group to share the kits I spent time developing. Recently I took notes on what I would change and general feedback. First, however, I would first like to mention thank you to anybody who helped me improve and finish these kits which I hope will educate and fascinate children. 

This experience to act as a teacher and lead a group of kids to work on something I created was a wonderful feeling. If you would like to know more about the kits there is a previous blog where I explained what they are and what is in them. I ran through both kits with the kids, and one thing I didn't realize was that it would take more time and energy for both. Next time I do this with a group I have decided to do only one kit. This way I have more time to explain and be more in depth with the topic at hand. Additionally, the group will spend more time observing first while I talk with them rather than starting an activity very quickly following a small bit of information. One thing I think worked very well was the drawing that the kids got to do which pertained with the furs by having them draw a habitat for an animal (whose fur we had on the table).

Bird nests kids made 

I also think if I present these more I will have visuals for what certain animals look like and hold them up while talking about it. Moving on to the bird kit which contained many parts to it which added to rushing through the activity. For this kit, I will add an activity where the kids will have a try at communicating how birds do as well as what they may communicate. Having visuals for the bird one will help more visually as the kids can try and see the differences between owls and a hawk when talking about feathers. Overall I am very happy I got this opportunity to do this and help build on the kits I created. Also it was quite fun to both, see kids enjoying what I created and seeing my work in action. 

Blowing out eggs

We used chicken eggs to practice 

The bowl used to catch insides. (kinda gross) 

       A few weeks ago, while working on my bird display case, and kit I learned about egg identification, birds, and blowing out eggs. Since I was learning about birds this peaked my interest as I was used to learning more about a bird’s behavior as oppose to learning how to identify a bird's egg and how to preserve the egg shell. 

Blowing out an egg 

Egg blowing is used when you want to perverse a bird's shell for something like display purposes. We obviously were new at this and wanted to be safe so we used store bought chicken eggs. There are instructions you can closely follow online if you want to try this out for yourself at home. However, essentially all you do is puncture two holes at the bottom/top of the shell making sure one is bigger than the other then you blow through the egg. This forces the inside of the egg to drain leaving the shell intact. It is very intriguing, but since I am rather squeamish I found myself slightly disgusted, but nonetheless intrigued. When I tried this the aspect I had trouble was with how durable the shell is. Puncturing the hole as well as holding it I felt myself being overly cautious since I might break the shell, but that was the only thing I was cautious of. Overall it was a very interesting activity and a great learning experience, and I thoroughly enjoyed it.